HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’ is a must-see sci-fi drama
One would be forgiven for a skeptical approach to a prestige TV series based on a video game. Netflix’s “The Witcher” is pretty good, and there’s a smattering of animated fare that sprang from a console. Such adaptations typically inspire low expectations for thoughtful storytelling or thematic maturity. Until, that is, “The Last of Us.”
HBO’s postapocalyptic road trip drama serves as a reminder that the best shows of this ilk aren’t really about zombies, suspense or even death. They’re about the things human beings are capable of doing to each other when the walls are closing in and the unexpected love and kindness that sprout from the least likely places, like a world-ravaging pandemic or a video game.
The show’s focus is a hardened survivor, who has grown far too accustomed to killing, and the 14-year-old girl he must escort across the country. But every episode unfurls a rich new drama and ushers in (and usually out) choice characters and guest performances. You don’t want to get too attached to anyone here, but it’s easy to enjoy their company while you can.
Ellie (Bella Ramsey) is precious cargo. A street-smart orphan, she appears to be immune to the disease that turns its victims into “clickers,” rabid undead so named for the noise they make with their mouths. Joel (Ramsey’s fellow “Game of Thrones” alum Pedro Pascal) is tasked with transporting her to a group of revolutionaries who hope to use her blood to create a vaccine. It’s a long, hard, unforgiving road that might bring to mind any number of previous works, including “The Road,” “Children of Men,” “Sweet Tooth” and various zombie stories (though the Z-word is never used here).
But “The Last of Us” quickly emerges as its own entity. Early on we meet Bill (Nick Offerman), a survivalist living outside of Boston. Bill has rigged his property with an electric fence and lethal tripwires, but somehow, Frank (Murray Bartlett, so good in the first season of “The White Lotus”) finds his way in. Bill lets him live. Then they fall in love and share what’s left of their life together while the world outside goes to hell. This is the moment when “The Last of Us” makes clear it’s playing with higher stakes than anticipated and that it can be as tender as it is grim (and make no mistake, it’s quite grim).
Along the way, we also meet a myopic revolutionary leader (Melanie Lynskey), a reluctant government collaborator
(Lamar Johnson), a preacher with a dangerous God complex (Scott Shepherd) and other survivors forced to various forms of extreme behavior and belief. Each episode is like its own freestanding drama, though it all adds up to a rewarding whole.
You can feel the hand of
Craig Mazin, who created
HBO’s lean disaster series “Chernobyl” and created the new series with “The Last of Us” video-game architect Neil Druckman. Every once in a while, “The Last of Us” resorts to piling up a body count, or turns its central relationship into something rote. But none of that happens often, and the series’ strengths are so prevalent that its lapses shrink in comparison.
This isn’t just a breakthrough video-game adaptation. It’s a great show, period.